Library Loot

 Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!


Today's loot is full of something I rarely check out-cookbooks!

At Elizabeth David's Table

I passed this one the shelf, did a double take, and picked it up. That pile of mussels definitely caught my attention. When I got home, I showed the cover to Tai and said don't you want me to learn to make mussels. He agreed that that the picture looked delicious and agreed that having mussels at home would be a treat.

The Art of Armenian Cooking

Tai's first wife was Armenian and Tai loved the food her family would make. Living in L.A., there are plenty of Armenian restaurants so he never really missed Armenian food til moving to Seattle. We don't seem to have any Armenian restaurants so I decided I would learn to make a few dishes. 

What did you get this week?

Weekend Cooking: An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler

An Everlasting Meal is a cookbook. It isn't a food memoir. It's so much more than both of those things. An Everlasting Meal is reminder about what food and cooking really are. Food is a necessity for life and cooking is an art, a hobby, and a joy. Adler reminds the home cook that you can have a delicious gourmet meal without trying to rival any gourmet chef. While there are recipes included in An Everlasting Meal, Adler spends a lot of time talking about how to combine foods, things you might have in your own pantry to make a week's worth of food with little effort. 

Each chapter takes on a different category of ingredient-fish, vegetables, bread-and explains ways to make each one last beyond one meal. Rather than tossing leftover bread, make bread soup, breadcrumbs, bread pudding. Vegetable scraps become soup stock. The idea of economy is not only to make it last but make your food work for you. Adler does advocate for making more than you can eat today with the intention of using today's roast chicken for tomorrow's sandwiches and Wednesday's soup. 

The reason I loved this book so much can be summed up in this quote:

After the first bite you think, This is why I've boiled meat; this is why I've bought good eggs; this is why I've taken time to cook; this is why i eat. pg 28

This book renewed my curiosity in the kitchen.  It's not just about putting together ingredients for a recipe that come someone created. It's because I wonder how those things will taste together. How I can make something taste amazing.
I recommend this book for those who enjoy cooking as well as those who might not. Adler would help any non-cook see it's not about being able to follow a recipe but learning to create meals. An Everlasting Meal will certainly make anyone hungry! Others who shared their thoughts on An Everlasting Meal: Sammitt, Eat To Thrive, Book Buzz, and Ghost Town Farmer.
This was my third read for the Foodies Read 2 Challenge.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Library Loot

 Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!


This is the week I decided to get all the books that I've been wanting to read. No waiting. It feels a little reckless. I'm not making dents in my challenges but I'm certainly enjoying what I'm reading!

Anna and The French Kiss

Incarnate

Across The Universe

Born Wicked

I'm really surprised to get this one so quickly.

What did you get this week?

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I was going to wait to start the Divergent series until all the books were out but I kept seeing such great reviews about it, I couldn't wait. I loved Divergent and can't wait for the second book.
There are plenty of comparisons to The Hunger Games. I can see the similarities. But there were plenty of differences so I didn't feel like I was reading The Hunger Games 2. Tris' world is divided into factions-Dauntless, Candor, Amity, Erudite, and Abnegation. Tris is conflicted. She can't act like how she was raised to be. She craves excitement, something different than the selfless existence she was raised in. But she sees the merits of her faction. I actually liked how the factions were divided. I loved the world Roth created. It held a lot of similarity to our world now except there was a disaster that created this new factioned society. I could really see Tris' world. Roth made Tris' world so real and complex.
I recommend this to anyone who likes a good dystopian story. I'm looking forward to Insurgent, the second in the series. Others who shared their thoughts on Divergent: Book Journey, About Happy Books, My Books. My Life, Fluttering Butterflies, Feeding My Book Addiction, Paranormal Indulgence, The Broke and The Bookish, Jenn Musing, Read. Breathe. Relax, My Overstuffed Bookshelf, Reading With Tequila, and I Read Banned Books.

Weekend Cooking: Lemon Sour Cream Cake

I still have a few meyer lemons left. I decided that a cake would be a great idea so I did some sleuthing and found this recipe. Delicious and lemon-y.

I messed up the glaze. I used regular sugar rather than powdered sugar so I look forward to making it right next time.

Elevenses

No snacks but eleven random facts about me and eleven questions from Shoshanah! 


Rules:
1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them that you've tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

11 Random Things

1. I have the opposite of a reading slump. I want to read and read and read. Obstacles to reading include working, sleeping and eating.

2. I have a three day weekend coming up and I took an extra day off so I can read more.

3. Although reading An Everlasting Meal has made me want to cook more.

4. We recently got an xBox 360. I was hoping a Kinect was going to be my Valentine's Day present. It wasn't.

5. But I did get some beautiful roses and 2 dozen chocolate covered strawberries. 

6. I shared a dozen of those strawberries with my coworker. 

7. The other dozen are all mine :)

8. My local grocery store had a really good deal on Vitaminwater and Poweraide. I went a little crazy and bought 130 bottles. I have little storage issue right now.

9. I really like Vitaminwater but only the XXX kind. All the other flavors are tolerable. 

10. I tend to horde candy and snack items. I'll buy a box of cookies, eat a few, and keep the rest for later. Except I tend to forget about them and go out and get more cookies later. Tai finds boxes of cookies with half or less missing all the time.

11. I did our taxes and we owe again :( Boo!


11 Questions from Shoshanah
1. What's your favorite type of candy?
Depends. I like M&M's, red vines, and Jolly Ranchers. 

2. What's the last book you read that you really loved?
An Everlasting Meal. Such great ideas. I've been recommending to random people (like a checker at the grocery store).

3. How many phone numbers do you have memorized?
One-my dad's number.

4. What are 3 things you'd love to have in a dream house?
A fireplace in my bathroom, a balcony, and a game room.

5. The beach or the mountains?
Mountains.

6. What's your earliest childhood memory?
I remember watching Jimmy Carter giving a speech on tv. I really liked him since he was the peanut man. I must have been about 4 years old. 

7. What's the last thing you ate?
I roasted some carrots and bell peppers and I snuck a few. They are for my lunch tomorrow.

8. What's your favorite type of drink to order out at a bar?
I usually get a jack and coke. Hard to screw up and I like it. 

9. If you could live in any state (or country), where would you pick?
I love living in Washington but I'd love to try living in other places like New York, California, Texas, Paris, London, Sydney.

10. What magazines do you currently subscribe to?
I don't subscribe to any magazines. 

11. If you were to use one of my questions, for the questions you choose to ask, which one would you choose?
What's the last thing you ate?


Questions from me
1. What's your signature dish to make? 
2. Two week, all expenses paid vacation. Where would you go?
3. What internet site (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc) do you waste the most time on?
4. What's something you always have in your fridge?
5. What's the last thing you ate?
6. Favorite drink (alcoholic or not)?
7. What's your favorite article of clothing?
8. If you have an e-reader, should I get one? If you don't have one, do you want one and why?
9. Favorite supernatural creature (ie fairies, vampires, etc)? If you hate supernatural creatures, then favorite genre of books.
10. What's your favorite free activity outside your home?
11. What's one food from your childhood that you can't make that you miss?


I'm tagging 


Sabrina
The Cheerful Homemaker
Newlyweds Next Door
Linda
Lisa
Rebekah Anne
Erin
Staci
Allie
Jules
Erin

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I put Cinder on my library queue because the idea of a cyborg Cinderella sounded different and interesting. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed Cinder.
Cinder is a cyborg with a horrible stepmother and two stepsister (Peony who she gets along with and Pearl who is like her mother, horrible). I liked Cinder. She's smart, independent, and creative. She's certainly not waiting for a prince to come and sweep her off her feet. She's got plans. But there is a prince that unfortunately doesn't get much fleshing out but hopefully we'll get to know him more in the next book. I loved this strange version of Earth, androids, humans, and cyborgs all living together. I think Meyer did a good job of world building. I look forward to learning more about Cinder's world in the next book.
Overall, I enjoyed Cinder. I think it was a good first book in an upcoming trilogy. Certainly keep me engaged. Others who shared their thoughts on Cinder: Becky's Book Reviews, The Broke and The Bookish, Book Journey, Books Devoured, The Discriminating Fan Girl, Debbie's World of Books, Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile, and Paranormal Indulgence.

Library Loot

 Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!


I got the first two books in my loot after reading the story of about the death of the last surviving World War I veteran who was female.

Into The Breach: American Women Overseas in World War I

American Women In World War I: They Also Served

Divergent

I was trying to hold out on this series til all books were out but I gave in due to all the rave reviews I was hearing. 

Diabolical

I read the first 3 books in the Tantalize series last year and have been anxious for Diabolical to come out.

What did you get this week?

The Love List

♥Insanity
♥PB&J shakes from Emerald City Smoothies

powered by Fotopedia

♥Peanut butter in my oatmeal
♥Oysters

powered by Fotopedia

♥Burgers
♥Spending the whole day at home with Tai

powered by Fotopedia

♥Flannel sheets
♥Puppies

powered by Fotopedia

♥Pinterest
♥Trying new recipes

What's on your love list?

A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot

Many thanks to Eva who recommended A Very Long Engagement when I asked for recommendations for books set during World War I. I throughly enjoyed despite it not being the type of book I would normally read. 

The book starts with five soliders being marched to the front lines. They don't know where they are going or what will happen once they get there. One of them is Manech, Mathilde's fiance. Mathilde does not accept that Manech died on the front lines, in a trench, on a cold January night. She believes he's still alive and the story is about her search for him. As a reader, you don't know everything about Manech, Mathilde, or what happened on the front lines right away. Everything is doled out in tiny bits. It's a mystery, even to the men who were with Manech that day. I admired Mathilde's dedication to searching for Manech even though her parents wanted her to give up and live a life without Manech. I enjoyed her creativeness, how she retained they stories she heard, how she found connections in each of the stories. I was also really glad I read To End All Wars before reading A Very Long Engagement. I would have been lost in the names of the towns and the battle history. While not necessary to know, my prior knowledge added to my enjoyment of the story. 

Japrisot's writing is magical. I loved the attention to deal and how creatively he told the story. Often I felt the story moved slowly but the writing was beautiful I forgave Japrisot for not telling the story more quickly. I have not seen the movie. Would anyone recommend it?

Overall, it was a beautiful and moving love story. I enjoyed hearing about life in France, post World War I. I was glad that Japrisot included people from all walks of life so you heard about farmers, merchants, the wealthy and those struggling to get by. I would recommend it to those who enjoy a well crafted story. Others who shared their thoughts on A Very Long Engagement: Blogging for A Good Book, Bookworm with a View, and A Striped Armchair.

This was my second read for the War Through The Generations Challenge.

Weekend Cooking: Perfect Baked Fries

I bought a ton of russet potatoes. I had a craving for potato skins but decided to make fries too. A ten pound bag of potatoes is a lot of fries and potato skins :) I didn't have a fry recipe and needed one that used my oven. My internet searching found this recipe and got this:

I followed the recipe pretty closely. Soaking the potatoes is really the key here. So delicious. I could eat them everyday!

Library Loot

 Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Tooth and Claw

Both Marg and Claire have been talking about Jo Walton for the last few months. I finally decided that I (and possibly Tai) should check out her books.

The Sweet Scent of Blood

There was a short story involving the characters of the Spellcrackers series in Home Improvement. It piqued my interested so I picked up the first in the series. 

An Everlasting Meal

For The Foodies Read 2 Challenge.

Cinder

I'm super excited about this one. I've heard nothing but good things about Cinder. 

What did you get this week?

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

When I first heard about The Scorpio Races, I was on the fence about picking it up. I loved Stiefvater's Book of Faerie series but I wasn't salivating to read it. I'm glad I decided to read it. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
The Scorpio Races have been compared to The Hunger Games. Eh, ok. I think that comparison made it hard for me to like The Scorpio Races at first. But after while I was able to get into the story. Puck is the first woman to run in The Scorpio Races. I liked Puck. I immediately wanted to root for her. I took me a while to warm up to Sean. But I liked learning about him a little bit at a time. The pacing was perfect. Stiefvater really knows how to write a great story.
Overall, The Scorpio Races was a fantastic read. Another fantastic story by Stiefvater. Others who shared their thoughts on The Scorpio Races: The Perpetual Pageturner, Chick Lit Teens, Pub Writes, Fluttering Butterflies, and Books From Bleh to Basically Amazing.

Weekend Cooking: Baked Tofu

There was a restaurant in Seattle when I was a teen that served the best baked tofu I ever had. Sadly that place closed up and I've been looking for tofu that was as good. I've attempted to make it on my own but it failed to live up to my memories. But I finally found a recipe that produced the results I was looking for.

I used the seasonings that the first commenter used-soy sauce, honey, and sesame oil. It was delicious and I can't wait to make it again. I served it with roasted broccoli (olive oil, salt, and pepper).

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild

I choose to read To End All Wars for The War Through The Generations Challenge. I'm not as familiar with The Great War as I am with World War II so I decided I needed some history before diving into fiction about The Great War.
I don't know what to say about To End All Wars. I did enjoy aspects of it. I enjoyed knowing that people protested the war. When I hear about wars before Vietnam, it seems like dissenters and antiwar protests didn't happen. After reading To End All Wars, I decided that every war must have had some dissenters. I enjoyed all the information about the soliders. A great number of them wrote letters and kept diaries so there was a lot of information on how the soliders felt during the fighting and how their feeling changed over time. To End All Wars focuses on the British but there is also information on the Russian and German soliders. I disliked all the battle history. I'm just not a fan of learning about the battles, who moved where, and how many people died. Hoshschild does a great job in fleshing out the major players and the every day joes. But there were too many people and I had trouble remember who was who and honestly, I didn't care about the majority of the people. I thought John French and his sister, Charlotte Despard, were fascinating but their story only made it through half the book. I'd like to read more about Charlotte in the future.
Overall, To End All Wars filled the need I had. I learned a lot about The Great War. I wouldn't recommend it unless you enjoy military history. The information about the people wasn't enough to keep me interested. Others who shared their thoughts on To End All Wars: The Arts Fuse, Tendance Coatesy, and Semicolon.
This was my first read for the War Through The Generations challenge.

January Book Tally

Vanish by Sophie Jordan

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynis Ridley

Home Improvement: Undead Edition edited by Charlaine Harris

The Girl In The Steel Corset by Kady Cross

The Killer vol 1 by Matz

The Killer vol 2 by Matz

The Recipe Club by Nancy Garfinkle and Andrea Israel

Kafka's Soup by Mark Crick

Eight books this month. Not bad, start to the year. Vanish and The Girl In The Steel Corset were my favorite reads this month. 

Stats:

Fill In The Gaps YTD: 0 (None this month)

War Through The Generations YTD: 0 (None this month)

The Western Genre Challenge YTD: 0 (None this month)

Foodies Read 2 Challenge YTD: 2 (The Recipe Club & Kafka's Soup)

Library Loot

 Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!


I feel like I've been reading (or trying to read) a lot of nonfiction. That's a good thing but I was craving some good fiction.

The Iron Thorn

I spied this one on the shelf at the library. I'd never heard of it but the beautifully creepy cover sold me. Steampunk and HP Lovecraft, sounds really interesting.

Living With The Dead

The next in the Women of The Otherworld series. 

When Twilight Burns

The next in the Gardella Vampire Chronicles. It's been a while since I read a book in that series.

What did you get this week?